Imagine an item that can make any wish come true… Now, imagine a world where you are stuck in a fairly small section of a town with someone trying to kill you and a variety of weapons, including park benches, machine guns, Molotov cocktails, and giant rocking horses at your and his/her disposal. Welcome to the world of Power Stone, a new type of fighting game where nearly everything you encounter can be turned into a weapon to be used against your enemy as you battle your way towards a magic gem that can make your wish come true. If that weren’t cool enough, there are also 3 smaller power stones on each board, collecting all three will give you a brief burst of power, usually enough to put a damper on anyone’s winning streak.
The game play is simple, a button for jump, kick, attack, and pickup/throw. You can do all kinds of special moves if you are standing near a pole, wall, or ceiling. This includes jumping and launching yourself off a wall, swinging around (or picking up and swinging) a support pole, and grabbing hold of the ceiling to escape or dive on top of your enemy. They true key to victory is beating the three power stones out of your enemy and grabbing them for yourself, turning you into a super power form that varies with each character.
The graphics are 3d cartoon based and the camera is set in third person view; the camera zooms in and out depending on your distance to your enemy. The maps are well laid out, containing everything from tons of items to pick up to tons of objects to interact with and a fair number of random traps that you either can set off or are always on. There are 10 characters in Powerstone, three of which are secrets you can unlock by beating the game in various ways, and one of the three is available only in multiplayer mode. Also as you play the game you unlock special items and power ups that can be used in combat, like the raygun or the extendo-staff.
The plot is pretty weak, but fighting games aren’t know for their plot. Basically, the plot only comes into play at the end, showing what your character did with his or her wish. It is in comic book form and reminded me of the endings you saw on Soul Calibur. If you are playing this game for plot, you’ve come to the wrong place.
Overall this game is very fun to play and master. Eventually the computer will be no match for you even on the hardest mode. Being such an easy game, if fighting games normally aren’t your thing you may enjoy this one due to that fact. The real fun I had with Power Stone was playing against other people, unfortunately since nobody I knew owned the game, nobody has ever been much of a challenge. However, I believe if you could get a few friends to master this classic Dreamcast game you would have party entertainment for hours. There is just something satisfying about hitting your friends with park benches, it always makes me smile.
I am the PR Manager for a successful game company and enjoy writing reviews for non-competing products. I am married to a lovely wife and we have a lovely daughter named Rowan, who is currently two. I am also a professional juggler and swordfighter, which comes in handy in a variety of situations.
